This movie poster advertises the second installment in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, the 2004 film Before Sunset. Here, the focus is still on an image of the two main characters, Jesse and Céline, but the composition of the poster and the way it displays this image has shifted noticeably. The image, which appears to be a photographed still from the film rather than an illustration, has been confined to the lower half of the poster, while the top half contains a black background where the textual elements have been housed. Like the poster for Before Sunrise, a question has been included to clue viewers in to the premise of the film: “What if you had a second chance with the one that got away?”. In both cases, the theme of romance has been connected through these proposed appeals. Underneath the question, the actors’ names have been listed, but not as prominently as with the poster for Before Sunrise. Directly beneath Hawke and Delpy’s credits, the film’s title is presented, though perhaps not as prominently as with the 1995 poster.
I included this movie poster as a component of this idea of change over time as exemplified by the unique modes in which the films of Linklater’s Before Trilogy were advertised to their respective contemporary audiences. The more straightforward nature of the poster’s presentation serves as a segue into more simplistic, image-centric design conventions of the 2010s which become visible within the poster for Before Midnight, while still maintaining characteristics relevant to movie advertising of the 1990s. Therefore, this poster serves as a middle ground for understanding how the first and third films become linked through this mid-2000s film as a transitional piece that makes the long-term narrative and linkage of this trilogy possible.